New 23andMe Lab Searches Genome for Native American Ancestry

Every family has its legends. Maybe it’s a story about how they’re descended from a passenger on the Mayflower, a Confederate soldier or Charlemagne.

Pocahontas

Of all the classic American family legends, stories of a Native American ancestor are among of the most common. Many times there’s a well-documented link to a Native forbear: Two First Ladies (Edith Wilson and Nancy Reagan) and one Duchess of Windsor (Wallis Simpson) are proven descendants of Pocahontas.

Other times, the evidence amounts to little more than vague tales about a rugged pioneer and a Cherokee princess. (Learn what’s wrong with that scenario here.)

The Maternal Line and Paternal Line elements of the Finder are pretty straightforward; certain mitochondrial DNA (maternal) and Y chromosome (paternal) haplogroups are often found among Native Americans. These include mitochondrial haplogroups A2, B2, C1, D1 and X2a — which are found exclusively among Native Americans. People in some other branches of the A, B, C and D haplogroups may also have Native American ancestry, but their maternal lines could also trace to Asia. On the paternal side, only Q3 is exclusive to Native Americans, though anyone with a Y chromosome in the C, C3 or Q haplogroup could conceivably have Native American forbears.

An example of a Native American’s ancestry painting.

The part of the Finder that uses Ancestry Painting to find evidence for Native American forbears is a little more complicated. It relies on the fact that people of full Native American descent have Ancestry Paintings that are consistently about 75% orange (Asian) and 25% blue (European). This is due to the fact that Native Americans are ultimately descended from populations that lived in northern and central Asia about 15,000 to 20,000 years ago, and the fact that those regions are intermediate between the reference populations that Ancestry Painting classifies as fully Asian (Japanese and Chinese) and fully European (European-Americans living in Utah).

Then the Finder compares your Ancestry Painting proportions to a table that contains the results of an extensive series of simulations that we performed to determine what would happen to that three-to-one Asian/European proportion over the generations if a Native American and a partner of all-European descent had a child who then reproduced with another all-European partner, and so on. We did the same analysis for a Native American marrying into an all-Asian pedigree. Unfortunately, partly due to inadequate sampling of Africa’s genetic diversity, this method cannot yet establish Native American ancestry for African Americans.

We found that it takes at least five generations after the appearance of a single Native American in an otherwise all- European pedigree for the percentage of Asian (orange) DNA to reach zero. In an otherwise all-Asian pedigree that process is much faster — in two generations, the grandchild of that single Native American can have no trace of European in his or her Ancestry Painting.

There are, of course, plenty of Eurasian populations that also have blue-and-orange Ancestry Paintings. So the Native American Ancestry Finder performs a second analysis that can distinguish people of South Asian, Central Asian, Middle Eastern and Ashkenazi descent from those with Native American ancestry. Unfortunately, there is still some uncertainty when it comes to distinguishing people with Native American ancestry.

It’s still a work in progress — that’s what Labs are all about. But we hope customers will help us by trying out the Native American Ancestry Finder and letting us know if anything doesn’t mesh with what they know about their genealogy. You can also contribute by taking the “Where Are You From?” survey in 23andWe.

I’m trying to determine my native American Indian roots. How can I prove this? My family, so the story goes,evaded being put on any “lists”. Therefore, it will be highly difficult to prove my connection except through genetics. So, I need to know what information I have in my genotype that can prove my genetic descent thus become registered with a tribe. My family came out of Cherokee NC. Thus I must prove descent from a specific tribe such as Cherokee, Choctaw, etc. Historically numerous family have applied but were denied because they were not on any of the lists. On my fathers family side there were multiple marriages to Cherokees. This is evident in photographs but there remains no proof. My hope was that thru 23andme that I could establish these connections genetically. Help?

ScottH

Debra,
23andMe does has a Native American Ancestry Lab that allows for you to search for evidence of Native American ancestry. We’ll soon be launching some new ancestry features that will improve one’s ability to search for Native American ancestry. That said we cannot identify tribal affiliations. Another consideration is how far back in your family tree your Native American ancestor is. If you go back beyond 200 years the amount of Native American DNA you currently have may be very hard to detect. Good luck in your exploration.

Joanne DeHerrera

Hi there. I see its been 6 years since this posting. I just sent my kit and I hope my Cherokee side does show up. Most tribal communities are excepting DNA sequencing now. I am adopted, but I do not have a living parent, and I cannot get into the Court records, because they are still closed for adopted persons. Only two states have them open and CA is not one yet.

DarlaneB

I think most people have rumors of Indian blood. People usually substantiate these claims with pictures while receiving ancestry results with 0 contribution of Native American ancestry. I think most of these stories turn out to be false.

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